Saturday, August 15, 2009

Willey House and Silver Cascade

Tuesday, August 4 (part 1)

Hmmm... I think Tuesday is going to need to be split into 2 parts, because I have so many pictures. We made a lot of stops that day, with lots of photo ops.

We spent the day visiting a lot of familiar sites, caravaning around in 3 cars (because there were so many of us, and we had 2 kids in carseats, we had to take all 3 vehicles). Our first stop was the Willey House, as evidenced by this sign.



The Willey House site is located in Crawford Notch, and is set up in memoriam of the Willey family, all of whom perished in a vicious landslide in 1826. They had built themselves a shelter specifically to protect them from landslides, so when they knew it was coming, they left their house to go to the shelter, but were too late, and got caught in the landslide. The saddest part of the story is that the house was left untouched--there was some kind of ledge or something in the mountain just above it that caused the landslide to split into 2 paths and leave the house unscathed. So if they'd just stayed put, they all would have been fine. This rock marks where the house stood.



Tony and Ari. Don't you dig her awesome hat?



Showing me her flower. (Yup, the hat is already gone.)



My beautifully pregnant sister (cleverly hiding behind the sign). The picture is off-centered because I was trying to get Mt. Willey in the shot. Didn't really work out too well.



My favorite sister and me.



Across the street from the main site, there's a huge pond (I'll give you 3 guesses what its name is), full of ducks and fish, and there's one of those little machines you can put a quarter into and get food for the ducks and fish. Ari loved this.



Beyond the pond, there was a path through the woods--an easy, 10-minute walk that brought you out along another edge of the pond. So off we all went.



Ari, showing me her sticks.



Mary and an uncooperative Pete.



Me and my man. Look at the background too, though--isn't it gorgeous? The whole White Mountains area is just so pretty--I love it up there.



Another family shot, ruined once again by the short one. (I have no idea what she was doing here.)



Our next stop was the Silver Cascade, a pretty little waterfall set back from the road. There's a parking lot across the street from it. There's not really a trail to it, and it's all uphill, but that didn't stop us from getting up close and personal.



Tony and Ari, checking out the waterfall from right beside the road.



Josh started it, though... he was the first one to clamber down among the rocks to get a better angle with his camera. Again, this was at the very bottom, right near the road.



Tony and Ari were not far behind...



Josh took off up the hill, with Tony and Ari a few steps behind, and I followed too--mostly because the hill was all in the shade, and it seemed preferable to trek up the hill in the shade than to stand at the bottom in the hot midday sun. I took a few shots of my progress as I went...



Getting closer to the falls...



See how high up I am now?



Self-portrait time!



Tony and Ari ventured closer to the river than I did... I think she wanted to actually touch the water.



I snapped this shot of them after they came back up. And this was the closest we got. I'm pretty sure Josh got an even closer picture--I think I saw him down on the other side of the river, right at the bottom of the waterfall.



Anyway, we all hiked back down, loaded up our cars, and hit the road for our next stop. And I think I'll stop there for right now.

To be continued...

1 comment:

Moz + Pam said...

We certainly DID pack alot into that day, didn't we? It was tiring but definitely worth it! :)